


it's only up to you

by thirlniall



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, idk??, im gonna cry, liam and louis are just not in it, zayn is mentioned like twice lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 06:38:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3478172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirlniall/pseuds/thirlniall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry just wants to watch his documentary, but his neighbor is making it difficult.</p><p>or: Harry and Niall are neighbors. Oh, and Niall has a kid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's only up to you

**Author's Note:**

> hii! so this is my first fic ever woohoo, its not really perfect but im still proud of it so eh! feedbacks and comments would be highly appreciated, especially because this is my first work. big thanks to chrisi for helping me out with this. and to esme and bree for being amazing supporters, love u guys.
> 
> you can find me on zharriall.tumblr.com 
> 
> The title is from Bronze Radio Return's song called Shake Shake Shake.
> 
> Enjoy!

Harry knows he’s a good person. He rarely gets mad. He never snaps when  
people call his stories annoying. He never gets mad when the old people in front of him take too much time to count their changes. Instead, he just smiles sweetly, and waits. “No sir, that’s a 5 cents. Here, now you got 80.”

So yeah, Harry is a nice person, he knows it.

The thing is Nick sent him this really cool documentary and he’s been waiting all day to finally watch it. He declines all his friend’s plans to go to the pub, he turns his phone off and he settles on his sofa. He makes sure he’s surrounded by enough blankets, he’s holding a glass of red wine in his left hand while he uses his right one for the remote. He sighs contently as he presses play, this is going to be a great night.

Harry is barely ten minutes in the movie when he hears a bang from the flat next to his. He groans because of fucking course he forgot about his noisy neighbors. Harry never actually met them but he knows they’re the loudest persons he’s ever heard.Ever since they moved in about a week ago, Harry can’t remember having a nice and peaceful night. There’s always someone laughing, a baby crying or a music blaring. And even though Harry loves babies, even though his neighbors have a really good taste in music, Harry has a limit. He doesn’t like being interrupted when he’s doing something he was excited for.

Like today. 

Harry considers just knocking on the wall until the noise gets down, but that would be just rude. Harry is anything, except rude. Instead, he puts on some clothes and goes to talk to his neighbor. 

He’s slightly taken aback when he’s welcomed with a blinding smile. His neighbor was maybe around his age, blonde hair all over the place and oh, he’s shirtless.

The plan was to come in, to tell his neighbor to tone it down a bit because he has a work to do (nicely, of course) and leave, but now as he sees the man in front of him, Harry suddenly forgot his plan.

“I’m Harry, your neighbor and I just came here to” he pauses, thinking of an excuse “say hi.”

“Hi mate, I’m Niall, come in.” Harry suddenly realizes he still hasn’t moved. Niall doesn’t seem to mind though, he just opens his door widely and lets Harry in.

“I—I don’t want to disturb you”

“No, it’s no trouble, come in.” He stops in his tracks, and turns to Harry. “Unless you have something, to do, I don’t want to keep you up.”

“No, I don’t have anything planned.” When he thinks about it, the documentary can totally wait. 

Harry follows Niall into the living room and takes time to watch around him. The flat was almost like Harry’s, except maybe messier. There are boxes everywhere, packed or not. There are plates on the table and Harry isn’t sure, but he thinks that’s an underwear on the floor. Across from Harry, there’s a little girl, sitting in a high chair who waves widely at him, it makes him swoon a little if he’s being honest.

“Make yourself comfortable.” Niall appears in the doorway, with a napkin in his hand. The Irish man kneels in front of his daughter and starts washing her face.

“Sorry, it’s a bit messy.” He leans in and kisses the baby’s head. If Harry almost cries at the sight, nobody needs to know.

“ Fancy a beer?” Niall asks as he walks into the kitchen.

“No thank you, water is fine. I’m not really a big fan of beer.” That’s true, they taste like shit and Harry can’t handle them.

“What do you drink then?” Niall is back in the living room now, with a beer in his left hand and a glass of water in the right one. 

“I like red wine.” 

Niall snorts as he joins Harry on the sofa, “Of course you do, you posh.”

He’s smiling though, so Harry assumes it’s a good thing.

They sit in a comfortable silence for a while, Niall slowly sipping his beer and Harry his water.

“So, how do you like the neighborhood?” Harry mentally groans, because really?

“It’s nice, I love it. Lilly isn’t still used to it, though.” Niall nods at his little girl, who’s now happily munching on a piece of bread. “Figured that’s why she’s been crying a lot lately. Sorry about that, by the way.”

“I don’t mind-“ Harry replies, even though he does mind. He’s not going to admit it though.

“Please.” Niall snorts on his beer. “As if you actually came here to say hi.” 

“Hey.” Harry pouts “That’s true. I wanted to meet my new neighbor, is that wrong?”

“At 9 pm?” The blonde boy raises his eyebrows. “It’s okay, you know. You’re not the first one to complain.”

So Harry doesn’t say anything, because Niall knows anyway. Instead, he just blushes and continues drinking slowly. They talk about something else though, about Harry’s work and how Niall ended up alone with Lilly. Harry was afraid it was a touchy subject, but Niall only waves him off and talks about it like they’ve known each other forever. He’s just easy and Harry really likes him.

When he leaves two hours later, Niall is a little bit drunk. Harry is very sober, but his weak knees and flushed cheeks might tell otherwise.

-x-

It becomes a kind of routine after that night. Lilly would cry, Harry would knock on their door. He and Niall would stay in the living room, sometimes drinking (Harry tries not to think too much about the fact that Niall bought red wine just for him), sometimes just talking. Harry even stays for dinner once, him and Niall cooking in the kitchen while the baby is playing the living room. It’s a bit domestic, but Harry enjoys it. He falls a bit more in love with Niall but it’s okay, It’s nice.

 

Until it’s not. Because Lilly’s crying is becoming less frequent, until it eventually stops. 

Harry knows he can get a little bit dramatic and he often jumps to dumb conclusions. He also knows he’s being stupid. (Zayn has reminded him at least ten times now, he knows, thank you.). He’s aware that just because Lilly stopped crying and the noise has tone down, it doesn’t mean that he should stop coming to Niall’s. He still does it though. Because now he doesn’t have any excuse to visit Niall anymore. So yeah, it’s not the smartest thing to do but hey, Harry never said he was smart. He stops coming to Niall’s and spends most of his nights alone in his living room, watching what other documentary his friends send him. If you ask him about them, he wouldn’t know what to say, because he might spend more time listening to Niall’s laugh across the room than watching the documentary. 

-x-

Harry is reading the book Zayn dropped off earlier and waiting for his dinner to cook when there’s a knock on his door. He tries to remember if he expected someone, maybe he invited the boys again and forgot about it, but nothing comes in his mind. 

He should be surprised but he’s really not when he opens the door and sees Niall, holding a plate in one of his arms and Lilly in the other.

“Hi.”

Harry is a little bit confused, because what the hell are they doing in front of his door. He lets them in anyway because he’s a nice person.

“Lilly and I baked some cookies today, but we made too many.” Niall paused to drop her down on the sofa. “So here, these are for you.”

Harry takes the plate hesitantly and goes to the kitchen, Niall following him close behind. Harry makes tea for both of them, and leans awkwardly on the counter. 

They’re just standing there, in a comfortable silence. The only sound they could hear was the Bobby the Builder from the living room.

“So,” Niall breaks the silence first. “It’s been a while.”

His tone is not accusatory or rude, but it still makes Harry’s heart beat faster.

“Yeah.” They’re back at staring each other now, not saying anything. 

Harry is slowly becoming uncomfortable, because he has no idea what to say or what to do. Niall is watching him with this calculating gaze that makes him shift on his feet. 

Harry jerks when the kettle whistles, he really hopes Niall didn’t see it. He pours tea for both of them and goes back to being silent. 

“Why did you stop coming over?” Niall finally asks, Harry holds his breath.

“Uh,” He stammers “I don’t know, Lilly just stopped crying after a while. I guess I just-“ 

Harry stops himself because that actually sounded so dumb, even in his head.

Niall just nods and plays with the rim of his cup.

“So, the actual reason why you always came over was because of Lilly’s crying?” 

“Yes.” No.

Niall snorts, humorlessly and goes back in the living room to pick Lilly up. Wait, what?

“Wait, where are you going? You didn’t even finish your tea!” Harry follows Niall and stops him from walking any further.

“I just-“ He pauses and passes his free hand in his hair. “It’s stupid really.”

Harry holds his wrist when Niall tries to walk past him. He needs to know. He needs to know if he was being stupid and Niall actually feels the same thing as him. 

“No.” Harry presses on Niall’s wrist harder when the older man tried to get out of his grip. “Tell me.”

“I thought it was just an excuse, you know.” He pauses, and looks around the room. “I thought you only used that as an excuse to come over. But as I can see, I’ve been reading this wrong the whole time.”

Harry shakes his head, because no.

“It was not-“ Harry sighs when he realizes what he was going to say. “You aren’t reading this wrong, trust me.”

“Why did you stop coming over, then?” Niall’s voice was soft, though. Harry figures it’s good thing.

“Because I’m stupid, and dramatic and-“

“Idiot” Niall interrupts him.

Harry pouts. “What matters is that” He takes Niall’s free hand in his and kisses the knuckles. “I’m an idiot but I like you. And you like me.”

Niall rolls his eyes, but leans in, and kisses Harry. 

It was short, considering Niall was still holding Lilly in his arm. It was sweet, though and it makes Harry dizzy.

When they both pull back, they just smile at each other. They were silent again, but this time, it wasn’t awkward because they don’t need any words to understand each other. They get it.

Harry’s about to lean in for another kiss when his fire alarm goes off. He groans, because great, he forgot to turn the stove off.

Niall only laughs and walks to the door.

“I’m going to put this little one in bed.” He winks at Harry. “Join me when you’re done.”

 

Harry only sighs as he desperately tries to turn his alarm off. If he takes a little more time than he should, who judges him. It’s not easy to do a simple task when you have a half-boner on.

-x-

That night, when he lays next to Niall, naked and sweaty. The neighbors knock on the wall and Niall knocks right back.

“Why are the walls in this fucking building so thin.” 

Harry doesn’t say anything though, because those thin walls are the reason why he has Niall’s arm wrapped around his waist. 

Instead, he just smiles and hugs Niall tighter.


End file.
